Document: We reprint below two excerpts from the Report of the Advisory Commission on the Development of Government in the Northwest Territories (1966) which examined and made recommendations upon the institutions of government of Canada’s largest colonial territory

Document: We reprint below two excerpts from the Report of the Advisory Commission on the Development of Government in the Northwest Territories (1966) which examined and made recommendations upon the institutions of government of Canada's largest colonial territory. I. ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMS FOR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT Forms of government do not exist for their own sake: they are meant to bring about, through a political process, the solving of social and economic problems and the pursuit of values of a more general nature. Ideally, political institutions should be functional, that is, adapted to the circumstances in which they come into play. One must therefore consider not only forms of government but also who and what there is to be governed and the conditions with which a government of any form is likely to have to deal. A review of these non-governmental circumstances , and the expression of some of those values, are offered in parts D and F. This part considers the alternative types of political institutions or the various forms of government from which might be chosen that which is best suited to the circumstances now prevailing in the Northwest Territories. Most classifications of types of political institutions give rise to considerable arbitrariness. The one which follows has no purpose other than to allow an orderly discussion of matters relevant to the commission's terms of reference. Alternative forms of government may concern either various constitutional structures of political institutions or the territorial area upon which political institutions of any given form would impinge. 1. Alternative Constitutional Forms As Canada has a federal constitution, our purpose may be served by drawing a broad distinction between traditional forms of government implementing or tending to implement the fed40 eral principle and, for Canada, the non-traditional unitary type of administration. Within the traditional forms of Canadian government, one may differentiate between the present status of the territorial government, full provincial status, and quasi-provincial status. Finally, each of these constitutional structures may lend itself to various important internal forms such as parliamentary or presidential traditions of government. (a) Traditional Forms: The Federal Principle (i) Differences between the Present Status of Territorial Government and Full Provincial Status The list of legislative powers of the territorial council suggests that there are numerous similarities between territorial and provincial forms of government. Dissimilarities are such as to amount to differences in nature. (A) RELATIONSHIP TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT The federal parliament generally cannot add to or subtract from the jurisdiction of provincial legislatures. The central and the provincial governments are coordinate authorities under the supremacy of a federal constitution which may not be amended unilaterally in Canada. The territorial government, on the other hand, can act only by delegation from the federal parliament of which it is the statutory creature. Parliament retains the power to increase, decrease or cancel the delegation or to modify the composition and structures of territorial institutions. The territorial government, therefore, is not coordinate with but subordinate to the central government. It constitutes a measure of administrative decentralization , but in a form which, for a number of reasons, tends toward the federal principle: the jurisdiction of the territorial government is being progressively increased, the jurisdiction is being strengthened by institutions the representative character of which is being gradually accentuated, and the type of powers which are bestowed upon it correspond generally to the type already possessed by the provinces. This conformity with our federal pattern is the more significant since the federal parliament, under the British North America Act, does not appear to be bound by the prevailing provincial model in modifying the territorial constitution: it could, Revue d'etudes canadiennes in theory, choose to delegate to the territorial government classes of powers which the constitution withholds from provincial governments and thereby establish an allocation of functions quite foreign to that which prevails in the south. (B) THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT The section of government where the differences between provincial status and the present territorial status are probably the most striking is the executive branch. A provincial government is headed by a lieutenant governor who, although he is appointed by the federal government, is the representative of the Queen in the...